Title: The Bad Guys Rating: PG Runtime: 100 mins
With: Violet (8), Kim (43) And: Guy Who Sat in Our Seats
What's it about? A group of criminals, who also happen to be anthropomorphic animals, are caught during yet another Ocean's Eleven-style heist (elaborate robberies are kind of their thing) and sentenced to hard time. In an effort to further his impeccable image and standing in town, some little hamster dude named Professor Marmalade vows to rehabilitate the motley crew and make the Bad Guys, you guessed it, good.
What works: From the jump, the vibe is fantastic, with Sam Rockwell channeling peak George Clooney rivaling the breath-taking animation for the coolest thing ever. While my daughter was moderately miffed about some key changes from the book, the story is engaging, goofy and rocket-paced. If anything, it might move a bit too quickly (we've got a some sort of record for double and triple crosses), but overall it's a crowd-pleaser.
What doesn't: Outside of being a wee bit...dense?, there wasn't much I didn't like. Mr. Snake is kind of a drag, and I'm not sure if that's because Marc Maron is kind of a drag or something else, but I came around on him by the end. Also, and this isn't the movies fault, but the lady behind me was so mean to her kid, I wanted to intervene. Little Man announced he had to pee just as the movie started and Mom got absolutely pissed. I get it, I do, but she was basically like, pee your damn pants, I ain't taking you. What the f--k, lady? (I really couldn't volunteer to take him, but it crossed my mind)
Yays: Like I said, the film is beautiful to look at it, but don't sleep on the soundtrack, either. When the caper gets it most caper-y, it is an absolute orgy of colors and sounds. Maybe I hadn't seen top-tier animation on the big screen in a while (can't remember the last time, honestly), but The Bad Guys was borderline electric at times. So, there's a few instances where Mr. Wolf goes good and each time, it's equally hysterical and adorable (the scene with the kitten was particularly cute). And finally, it was so nice to be back in the theater with my wife and kid, you know? The next step? Get back to the theater...with my wife and no kids.
Boos: I can't really remember it now, but there might have been a time or two (or ten) where this one seemed to be too much. I'm not sure exactly, but it could have been around the third or fourth double cross. Cop Lady was a little too hardcore, and sorry, but you can never beat the lady from Madagascar 3 when we're talking laser-focused lady law-enforcement. Oh, my face. Professor Marmalade's assistant is super frightening, though again, can you ever top the weird hench-guys from Toy Story 4 (remember those creepy frickin' ventriloquist dummy guys? Yikes.)? And finally, luckily I think it's ultimately crisis-averted, but for a minute, after this flick, my daughter was insisting we get a hamster. Um, no thank you. Not only are they fairly creepy, exceedingly stinky, but I'm pretty sure Marilyn (our dog) would enthusiastically murder it.
Gotta go fast? We almost opted into Sonic 2 as a family trio (Matty was at a friend's house, likely sniffing glue and breaking windows [he's in middle school *shudder*]), but wanted to keep the whole experience as short as possible. Why? COVID has crushed my wife's interest into going to theater, since her last theatrical outing to see, pre-pandemic mind you, *checks notes*, Sonic the Hedgehog.
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